In reply to David Roberson's message of Tue, 26 Jun 2012 03:12:00 -0400 (EDT): Hi, [snip] >There most likely is some energy emitted but nothing as compared to the rapid >acceleration due to the strong force.
BTW there may not be any acceleration at all. I don't think the actual physical phenomenon of tunneling is well understood. Perhaps the proton actually passes through a microscopic worm hole to get to the nucleus, in which case there is no acceleration, it just arrives at it's destination "spontaneously", where it feels forces appropriate to it's environment. IOW the Copper nucleus simply pops into being in an excited state. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
